Please don’t get tattooed when you’re sick.

I know you’ve had your appointment for months and you feel better today but there are many reasons to not get tattooed when you’re sick.

Let’s talk about you first because that’s what matters most right? When you’re sick your body is trying to fight a virus and needs all hands on deck to attend to that. Remember, people used to die from the common cold. You need your body at it’s best to fight this off. If it’s trying to heal a wound (your tattoo) at the same time then it’s going to take forever for you to heal your tattoo and to get better from your cold. Your pain tolerance will also be shot as your body is distracted by the cold or flu and already working to try to help you feel better so that great endorphin rush that we all wait for to bail us out of the tattoo pain has already been running for however long you’ve been sick, therefore it’s not going to kick in as usual. Not to mention why would you want to do this to yourself? Stay home, watch movies and nap. That’s what we should all do when we’re sick.

Now let’s talk about other people: you just left your house and are now spreading cold or flu viruses all over the place including in the tattoo studio. In the tattoo studio multiple people every day are having their skin opened up. The skin is the number one defense against viruses like cold and flu. So now for the next few days everyone who gets tattooed will have a great potential of getting sick themselves. Now, let’s say on the lower end, five other people are not able to go to work because they got sick at the tattoo studio. Just think for a second about what a few days out of work can do to a family. Not to mention they may get their whole family sick as well.

And finally let’s talk about your friendly tattoo artist. First and foremost they are sitting very close to you for at least ten minutes to five hours breathing the same air as you so you’re pretty much guaranteed to get them sick. If you did wait for months to get this tattoo that means that your tattoo artist is booked for months. How are they supposed to take a few sick days when they are booked for months? Now they are going to be coming in to work on their days off or staying late to make up for all the appointments that they missed because one person didn’t want to miss their appointment. And all the people who had to be rescheduled had been waiting for their appointment for months as well. That’s not fair at all.

In fact it’s just not fair to anyone for someone to get tattooed when they are sick. I’m sure by now you’ve seen the butterfly affect that this can have and will call the studio to report that you are not able to get tattooed because you are sick the next time this happens to you. I for one don’t ever mind getting that phone call as I don’t want to get sick myself. I will never hold it against you and will not even take your deposit (in most cases) just to keep sickness out of my studio. We need to maintain a clean and healthy environment for our clients and us. Please do your part to help us attain this goal.